Drop Dead Gorgeous is a mixture of ideas stolen from other films. Idea 1: A cute film about a small-town beauty contest in darkest Minnesota. Idea 2: Make fun of the town by giving every character a stupid trait. Idea 3: Shoot it as a documentary to give it some authenticity. Idea 4: One character must be slightly psychotic. But, if that doesn't bother you, and you are not easily offended by the use of stereotypes, then you will have a great time with this movie.
This film is a mockumentary that captures the events surrounding the Mount Rose beauty pageant which is part of a series of contests that pits bubbly young things against one another for the chance to represent their hometown and state at the national competition. At the center of the film are Amber Atkins (Dunst), a tap- dancing contestant from the wrong side of the tracks and Becky Leeman (Richards), the girl with the perfect beauty queen smile and little else. And of course, their respective mothers, Annette (Barkin) and Gladys (Alley). Gladys is the head organiser of the town competition, and a former Miss Teen Princess champion herself, and will stop at nothing to ensure that Becky follows in her footsteps as a Mount Rose beauty queen. The tension progressively builds to the heated showdown between Amber and Becky with the film's most hilarious moments happen to be the most wicked. Drop Dead Gorgeous mostly succeeds in hitting the mark with its dark humor, and while it does have its obvious flaws, these weaker elements are proportionately few compared to the stronger material.

It's 1962, the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and scientific genius Calvin Webber (Walken) and his pregnant wife Helen (Spacek) have gone underground to protect themselves from impending doom. So when a plane crashes into his house, he mistakes it for the H-bomb and the fallout shelter becomes their home. When their child, Adam, is born, he is raised to have impeccable manners, an education worthy of Harvard, and an insatiable appetite for Perry Como tunes (but who doesn't like Perry Como?!?!!). When Adam (Fraser) turns 35 Adam's dreams are fulfilled when his Dad sends him up the elevator to find a girl who doesn't glow in the dark- enter Eve (Silverstone), and her gay roommate, Troy (Foley from 'News Radio') to help him through the filth and seediness of a bad neighborhood in Los Angeles.
While the concept is very good, it is let down by the uneven spread of the storyline. It starts out too leisurely, has an admirable 45 minutes in the middle, but then is rushed at the end. It is a tribute to the film's charismatic actors, specifically Fraser, Walken, and Foley, who each rise way above the conventional material (and Silverstone who has shed the bat suit and baby fat to regain some of her Clueless appeal), that the film is as entertaining and funny as it is.